The field of this disclosure relates generally to a gas turbine engine and, more particularly, to a gas turbine engine having an airflow deflection device that facilitates enabling a variable pitch fan to produce reverse thrust.
Many known gas turbine engines have a ducted fan and a core arranged in flow communication with one another. The fan provides air to the core (a “core flow”) and to a bypass duct surrounding the core (a “bypass flow”). The core compresses the core flow and subsequently mixes it with fuel for igniting the mixture to generate a flow of combustion gas through a turbine. The combustion gas drives the turbine, which in turn drives the fan to generate the core flow and the bypass flow.
With the bypass flow being a source of thrust for the engine, some known fans have blades for which the pitch can be varied to optimize fan performance. In that regard, these fans can be configured such that the blades, at one pitch angle, generate an aftward directed bypass flow resulting in forward thrust, and, at another pitch angle, generate a forward directed bypass flow resulting in reverse thrust. However, in these known engines, the condition of the bypass flow is often less than optimal in both directions. As such, for gas turbine engines having variable pitch fans, it would be useful to improve the condition of the bypass flow.